A contribution to the understanding of self-mutilating behaviour in adolescence

Understanding and Counseling Self‐Mutilation in Female Adolescents and Young Adults

“…They recommended that therapists working with clients who self-mutilate should be prepared to deal with past issues of childhood trauma as well as the effects of such experiences on current relationships. Daldin (1988) proposed that the sexual component of self-mutilation is primarily masturbatory. Self-mutilation is seen as representing a self-stimulating activity that combines sexual gratification with punishment for the impulse to self-stimulate.…”

Letting them go - The short-term treatment of an adolescent at risk

“…Several authors stress that cutting oneself is a way of getting relief from an unbearable mounting tension and that it occurs in an atmosphere of unreality, stress and emptiness which disappears after the cutting (Pao, 1969;Kafka, 1969;Friedman et al, 1972;Raine, 1982;Woods, 1988;Daldin, 1988;Solomon and Farrand, 1996). Others see self-mutilation and self-cutting as the adolescent's desperate attempt to carry on despite overwhelming feelings of despair and selfhatred.…”

“…The attacks on the body are an attempt to maintain the phantasy that they are in control of their bodies. Other authors underline the masturbatory and masochistic component attached to the cutting of the skin (Burnham, 1969;Daldin, 1988).…”

Non-suicidal self-injury in federally sentenced women : prevalence, nature, motivations, and pathways

“…Sexual model. The sexual model proposes that NSSI either reflects a positive relationship with sex (e.g., provides sexual gratification) or a negative relationship (e.g., used to avoid or control sexual feelings, or punish oneself for sexual feelings), and that both of these purposes may be present simultaneously (Daldin, 1988;Friedman, Glasser, Laufer, Laufer, & Wohl, 1972;Siomopoulos, 1974;Woods, 1988). Individuals may struggle with experiencing sexual feelings over which they perceive no control and may use self-injury as a way to fight back or gain the perception of control (Cross, 1993).…”

“…It may also be used as a way of purifying the body from the uncleanliness of sexual feelings or traumatic memories (Hewitt, 1997;Himber, 1994). The majority of studies that support engagement in NSSI due to sexual motivations are case studies (Daldin, 1988;Himber, 1994;Kafka, 1969;Siomopoulos, 1974;Woods, 1988), theoretical papers (Cross, 1993;Hewitt, 1997) or reports of observational and clinical data obtained in a psychiatric institution that were not systematically collected (Friedman et al, 1972;Pao, 1969).…”